Are We Nearing The End Of Capitalism?

Capitalism occurs when industry is wholly controlled by private parties, like an individual or a corporation In the last 500 years it has changed our priorities, our social interactions, and the way we value our lives

Today, some argue that as technology evolves the economic landscape, we might see the end of capitalism, and a transition into a post-capitalist world So, are we nearing the end of capitalism? Well, in recent years there has been a shift towards creating bigger and better “sharing economies” to replace outdated commercial enterprise Major industries like transportation and accommodation have been dramatically overtaken by companies like Uber and AirBnb Even knowledge itself has become shared and editable thanks to Wikipedia Instead of the capitalist ideal of creating something unique, and personally profiting off of it, the evolution of collaborative open source projects is something distinctly new

At the same time, capitalist policies have directly resulted in global financial crises, and rapidly expanding wealth inequality So what will force a change in the capitalist system? Well, the role of technology and the changing workforce are major factors As more jobs are automated by advancing tech, realistically, fewer people need to work The nature of jobs has already been shifting away from repetitive manual labor Valued jobs are now concerned with the knowledge of regulating, improving, and contributing to the technological revolution

Also, the availability of information through the internet has removed certain types of businesses, for example travel agents and video rental clerks As a society, we are moving away from expecting companies to provide for us, but instead looking to eliminate the middleman and rely on each other One TechCrunch article points out that “Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content… And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate” So what does a post-capitalist society look like? Well, the biggest shift is from a focus on industrial production, to a knowledge and technology based economy

One prediction is that of a technological utopia, wherein new tech solves society’s largest problems and creates a functional communal paradise Through mutual expression over the internet, ideals like communication, collaboration, and community are combined with the natural online democracy Within this framework, entirely new social practices, morals, and customs will arise out of evolution and necessity Services like Twitter and Amazon have already shown that organic internet growth can change and simplify the way we live If you want to know how we ever got to the economy we have today, check out our two-part video on the history and functions of capitalism

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